Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-12-31

Of the people to the railway companies, |
which produced the Interstate Commerce
law, lies deeper, and in the fact that the
laws of trade invariably select the same
points for trade centers that nature herself
has first selected. Thus the selection of
Chicago by men was the result of the force
of natural laws, and thereby swamp be-
came the seat of trade.
The truth of this is strikingly apparent
to US. Michigan City, to which Mr.. Nor
gan refers as one of the artificial attempts, |
lies opposite to Chicago When the two
were of about the same population we well
remember the effort. made by the people,
and by the Government, to make the
former The trade center of the West Re-
siding then in Michigan City, we recall
the high hopes the people erected upon
such attempts, and recall also their mourn
full defeat In fact, Capital and Govern
ment favored the Indiana port; break
waters were built. years of dredging en-
gagged in, costly cribs sunk and anchored
with stone brought from long distances, and
millions, perhaps, expended to make a har
Dor on the east side of the lake. Even
the pioneer railway companies were mis-
led, turned their lines toward the place,
and made it terminal point; but only
briefly. One soon abandoned it altogether,
took up its rails and faced for Chicago,
while the others speedily extended their
roads and connections to the same point.
The sands drifted in and created bars; the
harbor was at las: proved to be impractical
bic, and the trend to Chicago became an
| irresistible current The attempt to Gre
ate trade centers at other points on the
lake all failed in like manner, because, as
Mr.. Morgan so well puts it, the cosmic
forces were at work in favor of Chicago,
and Chicago was elected the trade center
of the majestic West. In other words, 1t
is simply because it cannot dispense with
the determinations of nature that the peo-
pie are disappointed with the railway as
an institution, and SO propose to vent their
disappointment by enacting laws bristling
with penalties, but nowhere promising
them protection"
The essayist, however, does not remark,
as he might, upon the undeniable change
of sentiment taking place upon this ques-
ton. The people are perceiving CONNER
cial truths now, to which largely they
have been blind to for years. We believe
that the great mass Of the people are real
| izing that these matters of trade centers
and apparent determinations in favor of
places, are the results of immu able laws
not enacted by legislative bodies, but ex-
listing in the nature of things, and which
are as irrevocable as She laws of the Deity.
| Whoever has noted carefully the tone of
the press, which is the exponent of public
opinion, cannot have failed to observe
marked modification in its character, a
change indicating clearer public percep
! tions of the natural laws of trade, and
/ disposition to pay little heed to the short
sighted men who attempt to lead hope
less crusade against commercial forces,
under the belief that railways can create
centers of trade.
II, as Mr.. Morgan asks when Philadel-
phia capital built the Pennsylvania Rail
road it could have made the City of
Brotherly Love a trade center, why did it
not do so? Why, did not the Lehigh Val
ley Company make for itself trade centers
along its own line, instead of crowding into
New York City at one end and Buffalo
at the other, at enormous cost? Why has
the Grand Trunk Railway spent millions
of British gold to buy its way into Boston
and Chicago, if it could have erected great
trade centers at Montreal or Toronto, OF
tawa, Hamilton or Windsor? If railroad
centers SO soon as organized set the laws of
nature at defiance, and 'divert trade from
| natural into artificial channels, at the ex-
pense of less favored localities" why, he
the corporate pet of Maryland, owned in
Baltimore, and largely by the city itself,
expend money like water to parallel the
Pennsylvania, and fight that corporation
and the State of New Jersey to get into
New York, as it had already got into Chi
cago% The essayist proceeds at length
in this strain, showing that the railroads
have not diverted the business of the con-
tinent from trade centers, but have simply
followed it to them; they have not made
arbitrary trade centers, because it is i'm
possible for them to do so. Railways, like
persons, must, to live, do the business set
before them to do, the business the people
bring to them, or else go out of the carrier
tr,1a